We Won the 5-Day Cebu Pacific Backpacking Challenge
5 teams, 4 destinations, 3 main islands, 2 cameras, and one hell of an adventure – that constituted our 5-Day Cebu Pacific Backpacking Challenge.

It all begun the morning of my earlier post. I had to finish a number of pending tasks which prevented me from taking the much needed sleep for the first day of the media backpacking contest.
Together with teammate Vince of WhenInManila.com, we were off from Manila to Cebu. I was awake for almost 40 hours until the next day.
Cebu – CDO – Davao – Iloilo
Honestly, we were quite ready for the Cebu leg with a full itinerary, I was worried with the CDO and Davao leg. Iloilo was expected to be a breeze.

Although having been to the destinations in the past was an inherent advantage, the last time I’ve been to CDO was back in 2007; while my fear for Davao is on the transportation aspect. My first and latest Davao trip last summer was a pampered one. It was the Davao Food Appreciation Tour where we were always fetched and returned to the hotel care of Davao bloggers. Taxi aside, I never really learned how to go around the city via public transportation.

I never really expected to last for almost four days with only 3-4 hours of sleep, notwithstanding keeping a written log of our activities and expenses backed-up by receipts.
By the evening of Thursday, 6pm, as I laid down the bed, my eyes only opened again 4am of the next day. It was my first full-length sleep. 🙂

Allow me to discuss each of our destination itinerary in the next few days as I will separate them by destination per post.
Winning the Cebu Pacific Backpacking Challenge
Zoom five days forward and we found ourselves back in Manila at the Marriot Hotel in Pasay for the last day – same day awarding ceremony. Teams were judged on the criteria of Experiences (35%), Budget Friendliness (35%), Video Documentation (20%) and Written Documentation (10%).

That night, I told Vince that based on our performance, we could actually win this contest or at the least settle for second place behind the team of Pam Pastor (Inquirer )and Jill Lejano (Photographer). The two-women team of Pam and Jill seemed daunting (at least for me) with their gigantic Northface backpacker luggages. 🙂

By 10pm, Stratworks PR firm was able to finish incorporating the Iloilo leg into their computation and the winners were announced starting from the Canon Best DSLR and point-and-shoot photo winners, the runners-up, and finally the grand winner.
Both Vince and I were ecstatic after hearing Team High Sierra getting the top spot. We felt that all the sweat, hardship, and missing hours of sleep paid off. Well, of course aside from the four round-trip CEB tickets, and 3N/4D hotel accommodations and transfers in Kota Kinabalu Malaysia courtesy of the Sabah Tourism Board.

Acknowledgments
We’d like to thank friends who helped us in finalizing our itinerary for the four locations including Paul Villacorta, EvanJohnn Mendoza, Ria Jose, Chattee Lara, Edu Segundo, Junelle Caravana, and Michelle Pador (Greenwich PR Manager).

Add to that our ew found friends Pam Pastor, Jill Lejano, Alex Pastor, Ian Garcia, Rhiannon Halley, Diana Uy, Kate Paras and Julie Alegre. And of course, my teammate Vince Golangco who outstandingly took care of the videos. I’m more of the serious traveler while Vince has a great sense of humor. I suggest you watch out for his future posts. We got around a hundred videos out of the 5-day backpacking adventure. From the island of Samal near Davao where we got on a habal-habal, to the island of Guimaras next to Iloilo where he climbed Mango trees. You will not only LOL in his videos but ROFL guaranteed. 🙂
Lastly, we thank the organizers and sponsors which made the Backpacking Challenge a possibility: Cebu Pacific, ROX, The Travel Club (High Sierra & Eagle Creek), Sanuk, Columbia, and Stratworks.
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It was a pleasure helping you guys. Let me know when you will pass by Cebu for leisure this time. I’d be glad to show you around even more of Cebu.
Congrats once again. High Sierra FTW!!!
kasama pla si pam at alex jan!!!
kainis bat kasi sabay ito sa SOCCSKSARGEN trip ko… kelangan i decline ng bonggang bongga
@Photoblogger – thanks for helping us in the itinerary to identify the best route about Cebu city. 🙂
@eric – hopefully next time! Bacolod naman! 🙂
Congrats Jonel and Vince!
Parang super adventure! 🙂
wow congrats..sarap naman bakasyon nyo! kaiingit!
wow, congrats! ang lagay ganon nlng? PASALUBOOOOONG!! 😉
@Rins- thanks! 🙂
@Chris – hindi siya bakasyon! 🙂 hirap, pagod at dugo ang puhunan para manalo. ahahaha 🙂
YAY!!!!! Way to go!!!
Will have some videos out soon. Takes time to edit the 100+ Videos!!!
@Vince – isa isa lng, wag mo pag-sabayin lahat! 🙂 *excited for your videos! 🙂
Congrats! Kelan kayo punta sa Kota? 😀
Thanks Mica! We haven;t decided yet when to go to Kota Kinabalu. 🙂
congratulations to you and vince!! fun following and reading your site esp travels.More power.
hahaha! i can’t believe you thought we were gonna win 😛 we knew you were gonna win!
Thanks Ning! 🙂
hanepp! kayo pala winner!! wooooot! na kwento to ni hannah sa akin nung nasa cebu kayo that time.. hehehe.. galing galing galing! congrats! ^_^
wow jehz! nice o hear from you again!
thanks!
Wow, congratulations!!! That must be one adventure you can’t forget. 🙂
Nice to hear from you again Meikah, parang ang tagal mo nawala ah. 🙂
How cool is that? Congratulations Jonel and Vince!! That’s something very much coveted huh. Congrats talaga!!
Thanks @Pink! Mejo matagal na itong Cebu Pacific Backpacker Challenge ah. 🙂